


The Someone Else

by Niko_Writes



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Except it's more a Secondary School AU because England, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, M/M, in future chapters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-30
Updated: 2016-06-30
Packaged: 2018-07-19 07:28:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7351699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Niko_Writes/pseuds/Niko_Writes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pupil Support is an area set up at school for the pupils to receive help from anything they may be experiencing. It is not the most conventional way of making friends, especially when talking has to be kept to a minimum.<br/>"Remus sits near a young girl sat at the desk near him, her head buried in her arms as a sort of makeshift pillow, whilst another boy worked on a poster in the corner. He was unable to see the subject of the poster, just that it apparently required a lot of coloured pens and intense concentration."</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Someone Else

**Author's Note:**

> Well here I go! My first fic that is actually going to (hopefully) be seen by other human beings... I hope that it is not completely horrific to read. This AU means a lot to me, and maybe it might help other people with anything they're going through? That being said the first chapter is insanely short, but hopefully enough for you to get a feel of what the story is going to be like. Please review if you can! I would absolutely love to get any form of feedback!  
> Enjoy (hopefully),  
> Niko  
> PS: Sorry if the formatting is shit, I have no idea what I'm doing

He sat calmly at a desk staring at the wall in front of him, his body completely still apart from his hands. They were entwined around a long piece of string fading between yellow and orange from one end to another. His fingers seemed to be moving entirely independently, knotting and unknotting the string, with complete disregard for the people around him. A young girl sat at the desk near him, her head buried in her arms as a sort of makeshift pillow, whilst another boy worked on a poster in the corner. He was unable to see the subject of the poster, just that it apparently required a lot of coloured pens and intense concentration.

The boy with the string only broke from staring straight ahead at the wall, to glance quickly at the clock above. Though time seemed to be petty, and was refusing to march any further forward than a minute at each glance. He could hear a slight commotion coming from outside the room, and a voice asking rather a lot of questions, only to be answered by the gruff voice of the receptionist. What the content of the questions or the subsequent reply was, the boy could not know; only recognising their nature from the intonation in the two very different voices. 

The door to the room opened. Hesitantly at first, but then swung open with a lot more confidence than the initial movement. The boy missed the string when trying to knot it with his left hand. Someone else had entered the room; a rather tall someone else, with rather long black hair. The Someone Else seemed to disregard the importance of not breaking the boy’s concentration on the string or the eye contact with the wall, as he sat unceremoniously in the seat opposite him.  
‘Hey, I'm, um, I'm looking for Miss Harris, do you know where she is’  
The Someone Else had the voice that belonged to the starter of the commotion outside, and the boy failed to hide his irritation in his voice as he replied.  
‘She’s with Miss Pomfrey at a meeting. They’ll be back in fifteen minutes or so’  
‘Ah right OK…The receptionist is in a bit of a mood isn't she?’  
‘She’s just quit smoking’  
‘Makes sense…’ The Someone Else stopped talking and looked down at his lap before continuing ‘Sorry, are we allowed to talk in here?’  
‘As long as we keep it quiet’ the boy replied, trying to regain his concentration and continue with the string, but with nothing to absently gaze at apart from the face of the boy opposite him, he abandoned it.  
‘OK, it’s my first time here so...’  
‘What? Pupil Support?’  
‘Yeah. And you seemed pretty pissed so I just guessed’

The boy dropped his head, a shy blush crossing his features as he tried to wrap the string up and put it in his bag. The other boy, the one working so intently on the poster of unknown worth, lifted his head at this and entered the conversation.  
‘That’s just because you broke Remus’ concentration’  
The boy known as Remus scraped his fingers through his curled hair as he muttered something that sounded like ‘shut up, Peter’, but the Someone Else could not be sure. ‘I'm Peter’, he said, stretching his hand over the gap between the tables. ‘I'm dyslexic and I'm desperately trying to learn Spanish.’ He gestured to the poster. ‘It’s not going very well’.  
‘I'm Sirius’, said the Someone Else, newly christened to Remus, giving a large grin to Peter as he shook his hand. ‘Who’s that?’ Sirius said, nodding his head towards the girl with her red hair covering her desk.  
‘That’s Lily’ Remus replied, trying to shake the edge out of his voice.  
‘Oh, I know her’ said Sirius, seemingly pleased at being somehow connected to the people in the room.  
‘How?’ Peter asked, curiosity overtaking any attempts at keeping some form of mental personal space.  
‘Through a friend…’ Sirius’ voice seemed to trail off at the end of the sentence, as if regretting bringing the topic up at all. ‘I'm here because my foster parents made me get counselling, but I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing’. Sirius tried to change the subject- successfully it appeared as Peter looked at Remus, expecting some sort of reply for Sirius.

‘The school counsellor’s pretty good. I haven’t been to her regularly for a while but you can always chat to her’ Remus paused ‘except when she’s in a meeting with the school nurse’.  
‘Yeah, I guess!’ Sirius chuckled, revealing a warm laugh that seemed entirely in character with the rest of his personality. Peter laughed as well before speaking.  
‘It’s nice having someone new here who doesn't try and start disability bingo!’ Remus laughed at this. It was a rather tinny laugh but one that was infectious and Sirius found himself smiling through his confusion at what was just said. Remus decided to explain the reference to Sirius through his smile.  
‘It’s when anyone new tries to one-up everyone disability wise.’ Turning to Peter, he added ‘Though I know Lily won the Great Medication War of March 21st’. Peter giggled at this, whilst Sirius shook his head.  
‘I can’t believe how open you guys are about this. Don’t get me wrong, it’s really nice to not feel ashamed about anything, but it’s just a little strange.’  
‘It took me a while’ Remus said, with a shy smirk forming across his face.  
‘You’re still getting used to it now mate!’ Peter butted in, grinning at his friend.  
‘Hey!’ Remus replied ‘Don’t make me throttle you with my string’, he said whilst Peter laughed  
‘Not the string!’ 

Remus took a shaky breath through his amusement and attempted to bring the conversation back on track, whilst Sirius watched the two, laughter flickering in his eyes.  
‘It’s just nice not having to think so much about what other people think, I guess. It’s almost like “what happens in Pupil Support stays in Pupil Support”’. Sirius snorted at that, meeting eyes with Remus for a second, before Remus broke it quickly to look at Peter’s poster.  
‘What were you doing with the string?’ Sirius asked ‘When I came in, you were playing with it’  
‘I don’t know really. It’s just something I do. It calms me down and stuff’ Remus said, awkwardly, picking at the skin on his knuckles absent-mindedly.  
‘Whilst also making you look really weird’ Peter laughed, effectively breaking the tension  
‘Fuck off Peter!’ Remus chuckled, before looking down at his hands again, though still with a slight twinkle in his eyes.  
‘If you want to use the string now, I won’t mind. If you feel awkward about it, I mean’ Sirius said, with a warm smile, ‘oh, I don’t know…I'm just trying to say I won’t judge you’, he added when Remus looked at him quizzically.  
‘It’s alright, having you here has distracted me enough’

As soon as Remus had said it, he began to blush, desperately trying to avoid eye contact with the boy opposite him. Stuttering, he added ‘I didn't mean it like that…I just…oh never mind’. At that moment, another commotion began to spring up outside the room, but with a very different character to the one that landed Remus where he was now. This commotion sounded organised and well meaning, and before Sirius could reply to Remus’ ramblings the door had opened and a woman with short grey hair tied into a ponytail, wearing a mint green cardigan and glasses on a chain stepped inside. Her eyes darted around the room before settling on the dark haired boy who had long since lost the title of The Someone Else in Remus’ mind.  
‘Sirius Black is it?’ He nodded, in return receiving a wide smile from the woman. ‘I'm Miss Harris, do you want to come with me?’ She gestured towards the doorway, and Sirius, whilst slinging his bag over his shoulder and tugging his hair out of the way of the strap, waved a quick goodbye to Remus and Peter.

He left the room, and Remus picked up his string again.


End file.
